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This is my first year participating in this tradition and it didn’t start that well. First of all, I had to give recommendations to someone that had watched almost everything I have and deemed worthy of recommendation. I somehow managed some options and the people of Reverse Thieves lent a helping hand, too. Secondly, when I received my list I felt like a fish out of water, since I got Mobile Police Patlabor: Early Days, Infinite Ryvius, Macross: Do You Remember Love? All of them was in various degrees mecha. Mecha is one of my least preferred genres, though. I don’t find giant robots slick or appealing, battles are boring for me and the jargon of moves and who’s attacking who fly over my head.

Due to its famous status and short duration, I picked up Macross. Bad move. Probably because I had no idea of the franchise I was less forgiving to the macho non-sense 25 minutes in the film from that blonde guy. I couldn’t care about anyone. Plus the silly talk about “yuck deculture” had me rolling my eyes. Dropped.

Soooooo… Because I honestly didn’t want to stay with a bad taste, I tried once more. I’ve seen Infinite Ryvius described as Lord of Fireflies in space. I haven’t read this book but a friend liked the anime for its psychological drama and depiction of human nature. That’s how I ended up watching 26 episodes of this series and actually found it pretty good. Thankfully. Continue reading →

Rui isn’t pleased with the way this question is posed. Learn how to talk and behave, please. Treat others as the human beings they are.

20th November is Transgender Remembrance Day. 24 hours dedicated to victims of transphobic violence. I think this is a good opportunity to explain some things about the term and to dispel certain misconceptions I’ve encountered ever since my partner came out and I or she disclosed her identity to others, even inside the LGB community.

Being LGBTQ is hard not because our sexuality and gender identity walk hand-in-hand with instability in mental health (it doesn’t), but rather because the people around us validate their way of living by perpetuating hate speech and violence against us. Because some societies and people still view the others as commodities for their self-gratification. This is especially true in collective, mostly non-Western, societies. In this post I’ll examine through manga the societal pressure LGBTQ individuals face in Japan. Continue reading →

Karen Araragi from the Monogatari series is a temperamental girl who kicks ass. In season 2, she exclaims that she and her sister Tsukihi are the Fire Sisters, called so because they stand for justice! For them, fire and flames are associated with justice. This appears to be the case for many social justice warriors (sjw) as well, some of whom spew flames and toxicity in their effort to bring down the system. What they often don’t realize is how Neronian and chuunibyou their behavior can be at times.

Foxy Lady Ayame and Neko-chi (who writes about the rvsa incident in Part 2a), attempt to describe the burning issue of social justice, talk about the bad side of tumblr, and pinpoint where movements like feminism can go wrong. Opening a can of worms, here we go! Long post ahead (5 pages) with very few images.

Reminders:

We are two different people. Just because we agree on certain points, assume not that we agree on everything.

Criticizing specific behaviors of (internet) activists doesn’t mean we are against social equality or that we don’t identify as feminists -we do.

The US readers should keep in mind that our opinions don’t fit strictly into the two political boxes they are used to, so trying to read them as x party’s statements misses the point -especially since we live in Europe.

If you want to comment, we’ll be very happy, but remember to do so politely. We retain every right to delete swears and if things get emotionally unbearable to disable the comment section.

Many thanks to John Sato and Phoenix who edited this sheet of words and to Lifesong who helped me clear out my thoughts and supported me in this project.

I have had some thoughts on LGBTQ issues lately, so I decided to I write them down here, in this article. For the anime fans of the blog, do try reading this piece; I flourished my writing with anime examples 😉

Power is not meant to be used to torment the defeated! […] the very concept of inequality will be forgotten! -Meruem

Ever since episode 122 of Hunter x Hunter (2011) I felt the need to grab the chance to talk about totalitarian regimes because this is very much a threat to the country where I live. Greece has seen great rise in support for neonazism during the current period of ecomical crisis (2008-2014) and having Golden Dawn governing in the near future is one frightful scenario, no matter how hard life has become these past years.

Meruem is a character that I came to like a lot despite his first -very- violent steps. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t object to him playing the role of a possible messiah. At this point of the story, he had been influenced by Komugi and valued others who didn’t belong to his species. He was touched by the disturbing difference in living conditions between different groups and had a dream of fair ruling and executing divine punishment upon those living at the expense of others. How many times have people imagined torturing those who have harmed them? If a person was given the chance to be an emperor for a single day, most probably this day would be soaked in blood. But such an act implies that, depending on the value we prescribe to certain lives, we can take them away. And operating under such logic is, needless to say, dangerous. But, do things have to be that way? Are there solid arguments against the rule of one man over the rest of us? Continue reading →

Filthy Figments is a project that Gina Biggs initiated and many female artists helped realize: a site dedicated to erotic content (comics and pinups) by ladies, primarily for ladies.

Peeking into its world one can feel comfortable and cozy to enjoy oneself naughtily and to explore erotic fantasies. There’s much passion and joy into this project that is evident in the art, in the neat way everything is organized, in the forums open to discussions and suggestions and in the pin-up section where you can see that, in certain occasions, the artists drew each other’s characters. I, at least, got the impression of talented women getting together and being friendly with each other and towards the reader.

It is an effort worth supporting, so please go and take a look at their web page. Unfortunately, due to wordpress restrictions, I can’t put a link in this article, but with a simple googling you’ll find it easily! Before that, though, I want to highlight some of its content, so you can have a “look from the inside.”